Oct 14-16

FIT:

Traveled to Mexico on 10/12. On the plane, I was looking forward to getting some good training at high-altitude. I didn’t have much of a breakfast or lunch, so I had a big dinner of chicken and tortilla chips. The big dinner, plus the altitude, left me in not much of a mood to work out the rest of the day.

Slept 5 hours, with a couple of hours of work in between. In previous trips, I’d eat a whole bunch at each meal because I’d have to wait 6+ hours between meals. This time, for some reason, I’ve been fine with much more reasonable quantities. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I know what everything tastes like, now, and how much I need to be satisfied. I would’ve worked out this second day, but the group dinner lasted 4 hours, and the gym closed at 11.

The next morning, I was going to work out, after 2 days of rest. The mornings are better, because you get it done early, without risking other events or tiredness popping up at night. You don’t need to worry about letting food digest after dinner, or about being able to find a second dinner after a night-time workout. Plus, if you need to shower in the morning anyways, better to do it right after your workout and save yourself a set of clean clothes, which are a precious commodity when you’re living out of a suitcase.

I did 4.3 in 38:50, 8:56 ave. 7K is a distance-at-altitude record for me, I think. In August, it was a big accomplishment for me to do 3.7 mi, then 4.0 later. It’s warm in that gym, so I had 3 swigs of cool water to keep me peppy.

K Splits> 5:35, 5:37, 5:35, 5:37, 5:30, 5:28, 5:25.

That night, I had 4 hours of sleep because we had to start work at 6:30, so I had to wake up at 4am to get in a workout. The gym (and breakfast) didn’t open until 6am, so I decided to do the Insanity DVDs that I had brought. I did them in undies, to save a pair of clothes, haha.

It was harder, probably due to the altitude. But I did a double, with the second of the two being a workout plus. First, Cardio Power and Resistance, followed by Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs. The Cardio Abs was a 15 min session… interesting spins on ab workouts, although I think my standard strength session is pretty effective. Removing the stretching and water break times, I’d say it was about 70 minutes worth in all.

Once I got to work that day, I started feeling pretty blah. Muscle ache and what to me felt like a high-temp forehead. Don’t know what it was. I made it through the 11.5 hr day somehow. Once I got back, I skipped dinner (wasn’t very hungry all day anyway) and slept for 11 hours. What I did eat that day was stuff meant to get me better – papaya, cactus fruit, soup.

I woke up feeling good. Yay sleep. I got in a morning run of 5K in 28:06 (9:04 ave). It was hard. Maybe due to the lack of fuel yesterday, maybe from the previous days’ workouts, maybe from the blah that hit me yesterday. Hard, but manageable at a slow pace. I had about 100Cal of cookies before the run, to give me the energy I needed. After the run, I recovered quickly and felt like a wimp for not going farther than 5K, but whatever. I know it was hard at the time. I had a runner’s high afterwards, after going up the stairs and being light-headed.

Splits> 5:39, 5:41, 11:13 (6:37 ave) for 2, 5:32.